According to Australian Bureau of Statistics data, the wealthiest 20 per cent own 61 per cent of the country's wealth, while the poorest 20 per cent own 1 per cent. The research, based on a similar ground-breaking study in the US, asked people to estimate how they thought wealth was shared across income groups and what would be their ''ideal'' society.
The results, from 1000 adults representative of the Australian population, showed people thought the poorest group had 10 times more wealth than they actually do, while the rich have 50 per cent more, and 2.5 times more than what the survey respondents thought was ''ideal''.
When asked to show how they would shift wealth across five groups - from the richest to poorest - to show their ideal society, two-thirds favoured a fairer share of wealth than actually exists. This was true of both Coalition and Labor voters. Most respondents favoured more for the poor, less for the rich and a bigger share of wealth for the middle groups, ''suggesting a strong egalitarian instinct''.
Anyone earning $150K is not in need of a hand out.
